Late night view from Baldvinskáli
Late that night the clouds gave way to sunshine and a spectacular view across glaciers and mountains. Most of us slept upstairs in the attic; only Jon preferred a steamy night with the two Germans.
The attic in the Baldvinskáli hut.
The upstairs was not much better: every time I came in from the outside my glasses and camera lenses fogged up. The students, in their quest for darkness had covered up one of the small windows. The second one was by Christoph’s sleeping bag and stayed wide open. All in all we had a decent night – it reminded me of an old Bavarian saying: “Erfroren sind schon viele, erstunken ist noch keiner.” (I am sure you guys can google it).
Breakfast at the Baldvinskáli hut.
The following morning was great. We enjoyed the fresh mountain air (what a contrast to last night !) and had our usual breakfast of oatmeal, hot chocolate and tea on the porch. Soon thereafter we took off to cross the pass at Fimmvörðuháls.
Group shot at the hut
Through the pass at Fimmvörðuháls
Unfortunately the weather deteriorated rather quickly and we hiked most of the time inside or just below one big gray cloud.
Break on the trail.
Geothermally heated rest area on top of the volcano.
The perfect place to take a little nap.
Soon we reached the two volcanic craters Magni and Móði (named after the two sons of Thor). The ground was still warm from the 2010 eruption. We climbed up the few meters to the top of Magni and enjoyed a geothermally heated rest.
Melting snow over the 2010 lava flow.
Soon we left the snow behind and descended into the Þorsmörk valley. We made it safely past a few iffy spots (one now named “Linnea’s Delight” or “Glæði hennar Linnear” as the caretaker of the Þorsmörk hut translated it for us onto a napkin. The slopes were still steep, the trail sometmes went over a few exciting knife edges, but soon we all made it down to the river in the valley.
On our way into Þorsmörk
The Krossá in Þorsmörk
.. and our valiant efforts to cross it.
It seemed daunting at that time, but we didn’t even have to take our boots off.
We crossed the main channel of the Krossá on a rather bouncy bridge, but the remaining channels had to be crossed via stepping stones, which caused some excitement. In the end everybody made it and the number of soaked boots was held to a minimum. We got a good campsite behind the hut, the hot shower was amazing, and dinner, supplemented through a couple of visits to the hut store and the nearby volcano bar, was enjoyed after a long day of hiking.
Dinner in Þorsmörk